Dear Member
Greetings to you all once more. I hope the recent storms, ferocious winds and generally unpleasant climate which has recently risen up has not dampened your resolve and that the bad weather hasn’t dismayed you too much either. Our incumbent government obviously have their own agenda for General Practitioners, however that may reflect itself in patient care, and it seems that we are in for some torrid times ahead. Whatever happens though we will still continue to do our job to the best of our ability and that applies to the PCR Society as well.
Our ‘job’ of course is to try and promote better care of patients with musculoskeletal problems in a primary care setting. It is disappointing therefore to learn that the excellent QOF proposal from the National Osteoporosis Society appears to have been shelved. It doesn’t augur well for our own attempts at getting an OA/RA QOF accepted but we shall endeavour to do our best. If anyone with a Vision/ INPS system is interested in piloting such a QOF we would be very interested to hear from you so please let us know through Helen. On the subject of our OA/RA QOF proposal, watch out for a new Read code appearing in the Spring. If the Read code administrators hold good to their promise, there should be a code for “Suspected Inflammatory Arthritis” appearing which will be a major boost to both managing and recording the management of such problems.
My mind is still buzzing from the excellent symposium we had in November which was, in my humble opinion, the best we’ve had. I don’t like to single out too many people for praise for fear of not mentioning the many not mentioned who are equally deserving but John Dickson (who else!) and Elspeth Wise did a fine job in putting together an outstanding programme. The programme itself would not be enough were it not for the tremendous speakers and workshop leaders who brought the programme to life. I’m sure in turn that they were equally grateful for the enthusiasm shown by the delegates. If this coming symposium gets anywhere near matching last year’s you will be in for a treat so make sure you apply early. I have every confidence you will be taking a whole ream of learning points back to your surgeries and will be imbued with the enthusiasm and confidence to put them into practice.
Our website is still active but is still not operating as we would like it – yet! This will be a major undertaking this year and Louise Warburton is hungry for any news items or opinions which you would like published on the website. Once again, these can be sent to Helen who will pass them on.
The society has continued to try and make it’s presence and the issues it represents more widely known and I’m sure many of you will be aware of numerous articles which have been written by our members and have been published in the medical press. We have also had meetings with MP’s and have been active contributors to other musculoskeletal organisations such as the BSR, ARMA and the ARC as well as making our presence felt within the RCGP. I am grateful to all our members who freely give up their time to be involved at such a level and I’m sure you would echo that gratitude.
I wish you all the best for your upcoming QOF counts and sincerely hope you don’t have to work any harder than you already do. I’m a sad old lonely guy really so if you do spot me at the upcoming meetings of the BSR, the ARC or our own symposium in November, come and say hello. I look forward to meeting you.
Adam Bajkowski, President PCR Society